This carved image of the great Maori warrior Te Rauparaha
(1760s – 1849) was sketched by George French Angas in 1844 at Porirua
Harbour (northwest coast of the North Island of New Zealand) when the image
was still fixed in Te Rauparaha's canoe.

In Angas's sketch (now in the Alexander Turnbull Library,
Wellington. A-020-008) this carved figure of Te Rauparaha is shown with his
back to the transom, facing into the body of the canoe.

Angas drew on the same sheet a light sketch of a small sailing
canoe with five occupants, quite possibly the canoe which held the carved
figure. This carved figure is the only known image of Te Rauparaha made by
a Maori artist and is a major work of art. It casts a presence that extends
well beyond its body.

The image is difficult to seperate from its subject;
the great Maori warrior Te Rauparaha, he was with out a doubt the Napoleon
of New Zealand, beyond Hongi Hiki the Northern chief who massacred thousands
but who never matched Te Rauparaha in cunning and strategym. These Maori warriors
match any hero of the Ancients, for intelligence, heroic courage and far sightednes.
They were stoneage Hectors and Achilles. There is also something undoubtedly
“Great” about them, a sort of unquenchable ambition and breadth
of vision that in any race and at any time would have been remarkable, taking
of course into account that they were also blood thirsty and megamaniacle
evil bastards, as of course was Julius Ceasar.

Te Rauparaha was the son of Werawera, of Ngati Toa, and
his second wife, Parekowhatu (Parekohatu), of Ngati Raukawa. He is said to
have been a boy when Captain James Cook was in New Zealand. If so, it is likely
that he was born in the 1760s. He was born either at Kawhia or at his mother's
home, Maungatautari. He was descended from Hoturoa of the Tainui canoe; both
his parents were descended from the founding ancestors of their tribes. Although
not of the highest rank, he rose to the leadership of Ngati Toa because of
his aggressive defence of his tribe's interests and his skill in battle. He
was short in stature but of great muscular strength. In profile, he had aquiline
features; when excited his eyes would gleam and his lower lip would curl downwards.

His name is derived from an edible plant called rauparaha.
Soon after he was born a Waikato warrior who had killed and eaten a relation
of his threatened to eat the child as well, roasted with rauparaha leaves;
the child was called Te Rauparaha in defiance of this threat. The other name
by which he was known during his childhood was Maui Potiki, because he, like
Maui Potiki, was lively and mischievous. Much of his childhood was spent with
his mother's people at Maungatautari, but he may have been instructed at the
whare wananga at Kawhia.

From the late eighteenth century Ngati Toa and related tribes,
including Ngati Raukawa, were constantly at war with the Waikato tribes for
control of the rich fertile land north of Kawhia. The wars intensified whenever
a major chief was killed or insults and slights suffered. Te Rauparaha was
involved in many of these incidents as tensions mounted. He led a war party
into disputed territory north of Kawhia and the Waikato chief Te Uira was
killed. On another occasion he led a war party by canoe to Whaingaroa (Raglan
Harbour) to avenge the killing of a group of Ngati Toa; his nieces had been
among the victims. Young warriors gathered around him as he was an aggressive
war leader.

As warfare intensified Ngati Toa killed Te Aho-o-te-rangi,
a Waikato chief, who had led an attack on Kawhia. Te Rau-anga-anga, Te Aho-o-te-rangi's
grandson and father of Te Wherowhero, led a large war party to avenge his
killing. Ngati Toa were driven back to the pa of Te Totara, at the southern
end of Kawhia Harbour, where peace was made, but it was broken when Te Rauparaha
led a fishing party into grounds claimed by Ngati Maniapoto. Waikato came
to the assistance of Ngati Maniapoto and took the pa of Hikuparoa after a
feigned retreat. Te Rauparaha escaped to Te Totara pa and after much fighting
peace was restored.

Te Rauparaha left Kawhia after this episode but on his return
joined a war party seeking revenge for the death of a prominent Ngati Toa
warrior, Tarapeke, in a duel outside Te Totara. Under Te Rauparaha's command
they went north and killed Te Wharengori of Ngati Pou. Waikato again invaded
Kawhia, and after defeat in several battles Ngati Toa retreated to Ohaua-te-rangi
pa. However, there were relations of Waitohi, Te Rauparaha's sister, among
the attackers, and through them she negotiated a peaceful settlement.

During times of peace Te Rauparaha travelled widely to visit
tribes friendly to Ngati Toa. He was at Maungatautari when Ngati Raukawa chief
Hape-ki-tu-a-rangi died and he became his successor by responding to the chief's
dying query, 'Who will take my place?' None of Hape's sons or relatives responded.
Te Rauparaha later took Hape's widow, Te Akau, as his fifth wife. He had previously
married Marore, Kahuirangi, Rangi-ta-moana (the sister of Marore), and Hopenui.
Between 1810 and 1815 Te Rauparaha was with Ngati Maru in the Hauraki Gulf
and was given his first musket. He also visited Ngati Whatua at Kaipara, where
he was probably trying to build a coalition to attack Waikato. It is possible,
too, that he was looking for a place where his tribe could be resettled.

Ngati Toa had long-standing alliances with the tribes of
northern Taranaki, the southern neighbours of Ngati Maniapoto. In 1816 the
marriage festivities of Nohorua, Te Rauparaha's older half-brother, and a
woman of Ngati Rahiri, turned to disaster when the canoes of Ngati Rahiri
carrying a return feast overturned. In fury Ngati Rahiri attacked Ngati Toa.
Two Ngati Whatua chiefs, Murupaenga and Tuwhare, from north of present day
Auckland, joined Ngati Toa's retaliatory raid into Taranaki about 1818. However,
Ngati Rahiri were old allies and peace was made at Te Taniwha pa. As part
of the peacemaking, muskets were fired for the first time in Taranaki. Later,
Te Rauparaha joined Te Puoho-o-te-rangi of Ngati Tama in attacks on other
Taranaki tribes, before returning to Kawhia.

In 1819 Te Rauparaha joined a large northern war party, armed
with muskets, led by Tuwhare, Patuone and Nene. This expedition passed through
the lands of Te Ati Awa, Ngati Toa's allies, and attacked Ngati Maru-whara-nui
of central Taranaki. Te Kerikeringa and other pa fell to them; warriors who
had never encountered guns before became demoralised. In this manner the expedition
continued south to Cook Strait. Ngati Ira successfully held a pa at Pukerua
with traditional weapons but were deceived by a false offer of peace, it is
said from Te Rauparaha. On its return the expedition fought with Ngati Apa
in Rangitikei. Te Rangihaeata, Te Rauparaha's nephew, captured Te Pikinga
of Ngati Apa and made her his wife. On reaching Kawhia Nga Puhi gave muskets
to Ngati Toa and continued on their way north.

Te Rauparaha probably also took part in the expedition of
1819–20 to find a new home for his people. Their position at Kawhia
was becoming untenable as war with the Waikato tribes intensified. While at
Cook Strait Te Rauparaha had seen a sailing ship passing through the strait,
probably one of the Russian ships of the Bellingshausen expedition. A northern
chief told him that there were good people on the ships, and that if he moved
south he could become great by trading for guns with the ships now coming
to Cook Strait.

About this time Te Rauparaha's wife Marore was killed in
Waikato while attending a funeral. In revenge he and her relations killed
a Waikato chief on a pathway where travellers had safe conduct. In 1820 several
thousand Waikato and Ngati Maniapoto warriors invaded Kawhia. Ngati Toa was
defeated at Te Kakara, near Lake Taharoa, and Waikawau pa, south of Tirau
Point, was captured. Te Rauparaha withdrew to Te Arawi pa, near Kawhia Harbour,
which was besieged. Among the besiegers were relations of Ngati Toa who did
not wish to see the tribe exterminated. Ngati Maniapoto leader Te Rangi-tua-taka
secretly supplied food to the pa and advised Te Rauparaha to take refuge with
Te Ati Awa in Taranaki. Te Rauparaha had considered fleeing east to his Ngati
Raukawa relations, but the way was blocked by hostile forces. Because many
were closely related to Waikato tribes they were allowed to leave Kawhia and
begin the first section of their migration to the south, known as Te Heke
Tahu-tahu-ahi.

Te Rauparaha burned his carved house and recited a lament
for Kawhia. Ngati Toa went a few miles south to Pukeroa pa, where the people
were related to both Ngati Toa and Ngati Maniapoto. Most women and children
and the injured were left there while the warriors went further south and
crossed the Mokau River into the territory of their Ngati Tama allies. Te
Rauparaha went back to Pukeroa with 20 warriors armed with muskets to bring
out those left behind. He knew that Ngati Maniapoto had come in pursuit so
he dressed his people in red cloth and spread a rumour that a Nga Puhi war
party, wearing red, was in the area. Ngati Maniapoto then kept away from the
refugees. At night, while waiting to cross the Mokau River, Te Rauparaha addressed
imaginary groups of warriors, lit many fires and spread cloaks over bushes,
to give the impression of a large army. Reunited south of the Mokau, about
1,500 Ngati Toa went to Te Kaweka in Taranaki and began cultivating land Te
Ati Awa allowed them to use. A Waikato force, led by Te Wherowhero, came south
but was defeated at the battle of Motunui in late 1821 or early 1822. It is
said that after this battle Te Rauparaha in his turn helped Waikato by warning
them not to retreat north, where a Ngati Tama force was waiting. This victory
freed Ngati Toa from the threat of pursuit.

Te Rauparaha left Ngati Toa in Taranaki and returned north
to Maungatautari, to try to persuade Ngati Raukawa to join his migration because
he needed more fighting men. But Ngati Raukawa had other ambitions in Heretaunga
(Hawke's Bay). He then went on to Rotorua and encouraged Te Arawa to attack
a Nga Puhi war party, to avenge the killing by Nga Puhi of his Ngati Maru
relations. Some Tuhourangi had joined the attack on Nga Puhi, and followed
Te Rauparaha back to Taranaki.

By 1822 the section of the migration of Ngati Toa known as
Te Heke Tataramoa, which was to bring them to Kapiti Island, was under way.
Joined by some Te Ati Awa, the migration travelled 250 miles through enemy
land which Te Rauparaha had raided several years before. The migration was
initially peaceful because Te Rauparaha had made peace and marriage alliances
with some tribes. Others retreated from his path, having learned to fear a
war party armed with muskets, and distrusting his intentions. The Wanganui
tribes withdrew upriver, and in Rangitikei Ngati Apa were at first friendly;
they were related to Ngati Toa by the marriage of Te Pikinga to Te Rangihaeata.

Trouble began when the migration reached the Manawatu River.
Canoes were stolen when Nohorua led a foraging expedition. In revenge Ngati
Toa attacked a Rangitane settlement and killed several people. The tribes
of Manawatu and Horowhenua began to resist. Toheriri of Muaupoko invited Te
Rauparaha and his family to a feast near Lake Papa-i-tonga; when night fell
Muaupoko began killing them. Te Rauparaha escaped but his son Te Rangi-hounga-riri
and daughter Te Uira, and at least one other of his children, were killed.
He vowed to kill Muaupoko from dawn until dusk. The lake pa of Muaupoko were
taken and they were massacred without mercy.

While Te Rauparaha was attacking the tribes of Horowhenua,
Te Pehi Kupe, the senior chief of Ngati Toa, surprised Muaupoko on Kapiti
and captured the island. As Ngati Toa were threatened by both Ngati Kahungunu
and Ngati Apa, they moved to Kapiti for security. Fighting continued on the
mainland. Rangitane were slaughtered at Hotuiti, after a false offer of peace
had disarmed them. A great canoe fleet of southern tribes assembled about
1824, with contingents from Taranaki to Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour)
in the North Island and from the South Island. A night attack made on Kapiti
at Waiorua was defeated. This victory established Ngati Toa securely in the
south of the North Island. Allies from Taranaki and from Ngati Raukawa joined
Te Rauparaha in numerous migrations over the next decade and were found land
in the conquered territories.

Whalers and other European ships had been trading at Kapiti
since 1827. Te Rauparaha's power over his allied tribes rested on his control
of the trade in arms and ammunition. Captives were taken to Kapiti to scrape
flax to be traded for muskets, powder and tobacco. He also wanted to control
the supply of greenstone, and the South Island, where greenstone was to be
found, was open to conquest as the tribes there had not yet acquired guns.
Some of their chiefs had insulted him and some had fought against Ngati Toa
at Waiorua. About 1827 Te Rauparaha took a war party across Cook Strait to
Wairau, where several Rangitane pa were taken. A year or so later a larger
invasion fleet left Kapiti. Te Ati Awa attacked the territory around Te Ara-a-Paoa
(Queen Charlotte Sound), while Te Rauparaha, with 340 warriors mostly armed
with guns, entered Te Hoiere (Pelorus Sound) and heavily defeated Ngati Kuia
at Hikapu. At Kaikoura many Ngai Tahu were taken by surprise and killed or
enslaved.

Te Rauparaha led part of the war party to the Ngai Tahu stronghold,
Kaiapoi pa. Te Pehi Kupe and seven other Ngati Toa chiefs entered the pa to
trade for greenstone. The people at Kaiapoi knew of the attack on their relations
at Kaikoura and the Ngati Toa chiefs were killed and eaten. Ngati Toa then
unsuccessfully attacked the pa, although killing about 100 Ngai Tahu prisoners.
Te Rauparaha returned to Kapiti. In 1830 the attack on Ngai Tahu was resumed.
Captain John Stewart took about 100 Ngati Toa warriors to Akaroa, hidden in
the brig Elizabeth. He lured Ngai Tahu chief Tama-i-hara-nui aboard by offering
to trade for muskets. Tama-i-hara-nui was taken, together with his wife and
daughter, tortured and put to death at Kapiti. On the ship, he strangled his
daughter to prevent her from being enslaved.

Te Rauparaha went to Sydney in 1830 where he met Samuel Marsden,
the chaplain of New South Wales. The ship that returned him to Kapiti is said
to have taken him and his warriors to Rangitoto (D'Urville Island), where
they captured Ngati Kuia refugees, and to have transported them to Kapiti.
In 1831 Te Rauparaha again besieged Kaiapoi pa and captured the pa by sapping
and by firing the palisades. He returned to Akaroa and took the pa Onawe,
and then returned to Kapiti, leaving his allies and some of his own people
to rule over the enslaved tribes. Meanwhile the migrant tribes in the south-west
of the North Island, none of which accepted Te Rauparaha's authority, were
competing with each other and with the original inhabitants for land and resources.
Fighting broke out between Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa in 1834; this threatened
Te Rauparaha's leadership, as he was allied to Ngati Raukawa. Other Ngati
Toa, led by Te Hiko-o-te-rangi, the son of Te Pehi Kupe, supported Te Ati
Awa and besieged Te Rauparaha at the Rangiuru Stream. He had to appeal to
the Ngati Tuwharetoa leader Mananui Te Heuheu Tukino II for help. When peace
was made Te Rauparaha at first intended to return to the north with Mananui.
But he was persuaded to stay by Te Rangihaeata and went back to Kapiti. By
the mid 1830s Te Rauparaha and his allies had conquered the south-west of
the North Island and most of the northern half of the South Island.

He now wanted to extend his conquest to the rest of the South
Island; however, Ngai Tahu had obtained guns from the whalers in Otago and
were able to resist him. About 1833 he had been nearly captured by Ngai Tahu
from Otago, at Kapara-te-hau (Lake Grassmere). Inconclusive battles were fought
at Oraumoa-iti and Oraumoa-nui. Te Rauparaha was unable to prevent Ngai Tahu
attacks on whaling stations under his patronage and when they sent a war party
to the Cook Strait area in the late 1830s he did not confront it.

After Te Rauparaha's sister, Waitohi, the mother of Te Rangihaeata,
died in 1839 war broke out among the tribes allied to Te Rauparaha. A huge
funeral gathering was held. A Rangitane slave of Te Ati Awa, who had brought
tribute from the South Island, was killed and eaten, against Te Ati Awa's
wishes. Quarrelling at the feast led to renewed fighting between Te Ati Awa
and Ngati Raukawa, culminating in the battle of Te Kuititanga at Waikanae.
Te Rauparaha crossed over from Kapiti to assist Ngati Raukawa, but had to
escape in a whaling boat when they suffered a severe defeat. After the battle
there was no looting of the dead or cannibalism, as Christian influences had
been brought to Te Ati Awa by freed slaves returning from the Bay of Islands.
Ngati Raukawa dead were buried with their clothing and arms and ammunition.

Later in the same day as the battle of Te Kuititanga, 16
October 1839, the New Zealand Company ship Tory arrived at Kapiti. Colonel
William Wakefield wanted to buy vast tracts of land. Negotiations took place
and Te Rauparaha accepted guns, blankets and other goods for the sale of land,
the extent of which later became a matter of dispute. He insisted that he
had only sold Whakatu and Te Taitapu, in the Nelson and Golden Bay areas.
All land sales were declared void by Lieutenant Governor William Hobson after
his arrival in 1840, and a commission was set up to investigate land claims.
On 14 May 1840 Te Rauparaha signed a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi presented
to him by CMS missionary Henry Williams. He believed that the treaty would
guarantee him and his allies the possession of territories gained by conquest
over the previous 18 years. He signed another copy of the treaty on 19 June,
when Major Thomas Bunbury insisted that he do so.

Te Rauparaha resisted European settlement in those areas
he claimed he had not sold. Disputes occurred over Porirua and the Hutt Valley.
But the major clash came in 1843 when Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata prevented
the survey of the Wairau plains. Arthur Wakefield led a party of armed settlers
from Nelson to try to arrest Te Rauparaha. Fighting broke out in which Te
Rongo, the wife of Te Rangihaeata, was killed. After the settlers had surrendered,
Te Rangihaeata killed them to avenge his wife's death.

In the crisis that followed Te Rauparaha stayed on the defensive.
There was a reluctance for war among those influenced by the missionary Octavius
Hadfield at Otaki. Te Rauparaha had much to lose if he attacked the European
settlements. Settlers believed that he intended war and that he had sent for
a Wanganui war party to attack Wellington, as Te Ati Awa of Waikanae had refused
to do so. The crisis was ended on 12 February 1844 when Governor Robert FitzRoy
declared at Waikanae that the settlers had provoked the fighting at Wairau
and that although he deplored the killing of the prisoners no further action
would be taken. During this crisis Te Rauparaha, by avoiding war with the
settlers, contributed greatly to its peaceful resolution.

On 16 May 1846 Te Mamaku, of Wanganui, who had joined Te
Rangihaeata in resisting settlement, led an attack on the troops stationed
at Almon Boulcott's farm in the Hutt Valley. There were again rumours of an
imminent assault on Wellington. The new governor, George Grey, decided that
Te Rauparaha could not be trusted and must be arrested. He visited him at
his Taupo pa, near Porirua, and then left on the naval vessel Driver. Two
hours before dawn the ship returned and British troops took Te Rauparaha on
board. He was held without charge on another naval vessel, the Calliope, for
10 months and then allowed to live in Auckland. On his petition to the governor
he was returned to his people at Otaki in 1848. He was accompanied on the
return voyage by George and Eliza Grey, and by numerous Maori, including Potatau
Te Wherowhero.

Te Rauparaha lived at Otaki for the brief remainder of his
life, although he visited Wairau. By the end of his life his influence appears
to have declined, possibly because of the humiliation of his imprisonment.
His wives in the last part of his life were Pipikutia, Kahukino and Kahutaiki.
He had had 8 wives in the course of his life, and 14 children, some of whom
survived him. He did not adopt Christianity, although he attended church services.
Te Rauparaha died on 27 November 1849 and was buried near the church, Rangiatea,
in Otaki. He is believed to have been reinterred on Kapiti.

There are many surviving portraits of Te Rauparaha which
show a disparity between the facial tattoo or moko represented. This is probably
a result of sheer lack of knowledge of Maori moko inhibiting visual perception
on the part of European artists. However the image below was drawn by himself
and used to sign a sign a deed of sale for Cloudy Bay in the Marlborough Sounds
and is therefore be trusted to be correct. This is only a partial match for
the moko on the prow carving, the upper forehead detail being absent. The
whole question of portrait carvings is an area of possible rich interest yet
untouched, and is of special interest to the Te Fare Atua Trust as in our
collection we have a rare 18th century waka huia with portrait heads with
moko. But the whole field of Polynesian Art History is still woefully under
researched and still in the hands of Archeologists and Anthropologists rather
than Art Historians. As the field has yet to produce a truly great protagonist
though people like Terence Barrow did much to push our knowlege forward.

The site of Kaiapoi Pa is thirty minutes drive from where
I have lived for most of my life. Many who live in Christchurch know nothing
of the burning of the Pa, nothing of the captives that Te Rauparaha ordered
bled to death that the victorious Ngati Toa warriors might feast upon their
bodies. If I drove my car forty minutes in the opposite direction I can drive
down a hill on the way to the lovely once French village of Akaroa where on
my right I pass a pretty little penisula called Onawe where once stood the
Ngai Tahu Pa where many died under a rain of Ngati Toa tomahawks. If I traveled
another 30 minutes I could walk down to a peaceful bay where once the brig
Elizabeth lay quietly at anchor hiding Te Rauparaha and his warriors like
Odysseus and his men inside the Trojan Horse. When I was a child my best friend's
not so distant relations were amongst those who hid themselves in the swamp
behind Kaiapoi Pa till Te Rauparaha left ordering their captive relations
to walk North carrying in flax baskets the remains of the cooked bodies of
their loved ones. So the reader may appreciate it is difficult for me to be
dispassionate about Te Rauparaha when everywhere I look I can see his bloody
hand.

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